1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is fiber optic cables.
2. Background of the Invention
Typical fiber optic cables feature a sheath having one or more optical fibers. Fiber optic cables are coming into general use in the telephony network, particularly in trunk applications.
Industry experts predict that, in the 1990's and beyond, fiber optic cables will come into more general use in the subscriber loop, as cables having optical fibers extend from telephony central offices to individual homes and businesses. In this environment, the optical signals may need to run to a plurality of subscribers in a local neighborhood. Prior practice has been to install a standard optical cable, and then splice "drop cables" from the main fiber optic cable to individual subscribers. When this occurs, crafts-persons from the installing crew secure the cable at a given location, interrupt an existing optical fiber, and splice the optical fiber or fibers from the drop cable to the splice point of the optical fiber in the main optical fiber cable. When this occurs, the telephone company must pay the labor costs for the crew to perform this splice in the field. The reliability of the splice often depends upon the skills of the work crew involved. Further, when the optical fiber in the original cable is interrupted in this fashion, a remaining section of optical fiber is cut off from receiving further optical signals. This can result in sections of unused optical fiber in the original fiber optic cable. That is, in the terminated optical fiber, optical signals will come down the original fiber optic cable to the splice point, and then proceed from the splice point through the drop cable. However, the optical fiber in the original cable "downstream" from the splice point is no longer used. This is unfortunate, because optical fiber is by far the most expensive portion of a fiber optic cable.